The Engine Room the NEWSLETTER FOR
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the engine room THE NEWSLETTER FOR ISSUE 3: WINTER 2008 OXFAM IRELAND VOLUNTEERS IN THIS ISSUE: 2: Greetings from…Peter Anderson, Fundraising Manager; Remembering Annick 3: Did you know? Good news and curiosities 4-5: Oxfam’s World: Inside the Unwrapped project in Northern Uganda 6-7: Oxfam in the News 8-9: People to People: The Kilkenny shop & the Tanga AIDS Working Group 10: Campaign Focus: Taking action against unfair trade agreements 11: Nice pictures, Grand ideas: News from volunteers around Ireland 12: Your Letters the engine room Greetings from... Peter Anderson, Fundraising Manager I am delighted to have this opportunity to thank you all for helping to make Unwrapped 2007 the most successful Unwrapped year in Oxfam Ireland’s history. So far over €600,000/£445,597 has been raised – this is an increase of over 25% on last year! I had the privilege of visiting Northern Uganda in November 2007 and met local people who had directly benefited from last year’s Oxfam Unwrapped. I was deeply inspired by the courage and hope of the women, men and children I met, of whom many had been displaced from their homes and lived in camps for up to ten years. Over one million people have been forced to live in camps for internally displaced people in Northern Uganda due to a conflict between the government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) spanning the past 20 years. Now, with the prospect of peace in Uganda, they are beginning to return home and Oxfam Unwrapped gifts of livestock and the vegetable garden gift of seeds and tools have enabled them to return to their land and earn their own living after years of dependence on aid. One of the things that impressed me was just how lush and green the countryside was but it’s been neglected because everybody’s been living in these camps for years. If they could get back to the land they’d be able to earn their own living, which will enable people to pay school fees for their kids and stand on their own two feet. People repeatedly said to me, ‘I want to earn my own living again. I don’t want to be dependent on hand-outs in a camp. I want to get back to work my land.’ The most popular gifts this year were school books, drinking water and goats. Many families in Africa will receive goats, which are invaluable as they provide milk, manure which is essential for soil fertility, and they even feed on household waste, which gets rid of unwanted rubbish! And when the goats have kids, they are passed on to another family – a gift that keeps on giving. The continued shop support for Unwrapped is invaluable – we really appreciate all the hard work of the staff and volunteers in making 2007 a great year for Unwrapped. Fundraising Manager Peter Anderson is based in the Belfast office and joined Oxfam Ireland in May 2006. Read more about Unwrapped on page 4. Remembering Annick It is with great sadness and regret that the Fundraising Team lost one of our staff, Annick van de Venster, on 6 February 2008. While on holiday, Annick was trekking in the normally peaceful Mount Elgon National Park in Uganda, with a guide and porter, when their camp was attacked. Tragically Annick was shot and died at the scene. Annick’s death and its tragic circumstances are a great shock to us all. The thoughts and prayers of everyone at Oxfam Ireland go out to Annick’s family and friends at this very difficult time. Annick loved traveling and discovering new cultures and in Oxfam she worked long hours with a large network of volunteers to make Unwrapped the success that it has been; her contribution and passion now brings hope to many families in Africa, including Uganda. Annick was from Antwerp, Belgium and had worked with us in the Dublin Fundraising office since September 2006 and before that had volunteered in the Oxfam Georges Street shop in Dublin for over three years, where her fellow volunteers remember her fierce commitment, and her smile. We will miss her very much. page 2 Spring 2008 the engine room did you know? A voice for volunteering Sandra Velthuis is an independent consultant for the not-for-profit sector, specialising in volunteering issues. She has been contracted by Oxfam Ireland to develop a five year volunteer strategy for our organisation. To do this, she will need your input! In the coming weeks, she will be providing you with an opportunity to share your views on how the organisation can maximise positive volunteer involvement in the coming years, either by attending a focus group or by making a written submission. Use your voice! The Cake Sale goes international The Cake Sale CD, which many of you will be familiar with, has to date raised almost €250,000/£172,415 and sales are continuing to grow. The Cake Sale was recently released in the UK and the US, where the song Some Surprise (vocals by Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan and Lisa Hannigan) was chosen for the Thanksgiving episode of the hit TV series Grey’s Anatomy. Grey’s Anatomy is renowned for featuring future radio hits to soundtrack as part of the show, and Oxfam Ireland will receive around $35,000 USD for the use of this song! This is a huge success for the Cake Sale project Lots of jewels and furniture Congratulations to the Ballymena shop! Sales from jewellery accounted for 50% of the district’s total revenue last year. Well done also to the Dublin Road shop, Belfast, for the furniture sales: furniture sales represent approximately 625 tonnes of stock retrieved from landfill per year! On page 12 read the nice letter sent by one very satisfied customer who recently visited the Dublin Road shop. Music OxQuiz every month The George’s Street shop team has had the fantastic idea of organising a monthly music quiz in the Pravda Bar, Liffey St, Dublin. The cost per person is €5, but only €2.50 if you donate a CD or vinyl for their shop. The OxQuizzes are doing really well and in January the George Street team has raised €384/£287 in one night! For more information, call Solene or Kayoko on 01 478 0777. Cover Photo: In this picture Caryn, Dundrum Shop Manager, and Esther, volunteer, are Shop managers Niall Brown and Emily Bennett at the helping out in the new Rathfarnham official opening on 7th February of the new Oxfambooks shop which opened in December. shop on Rosemary Street, Belfast. Hanging in the window Would you or any of your friends like are the new drop-down panels, also known as ‘success to volunteer in a brand new Oxfam stations’ to remind our customers about the “added shop? The Rathfarnham shop needs value” of shopping at Oxfam! The new shop is looking for more volunteers! For more information, volunteers with a passion for books: for more information please contact Maeve (District Retail please contact Nyree (District Retail Manager) on 078 Manager) on 086 8147174. 01150160. Spring 2008 page 3 the engine room Peter Anderson, Oxfam Ireland’s Fundraising Manager, Katherine decided to join her local Child-to-Child drama went on a trip to Uganda just before the launch of the group as a result of her two-and-a-half-year-old brother’s last Unwrapped catalogue, to see the difference Oxfam death: she got involved with the peer education programme Unwrapped gifts make to people’s lives. This is one of because she didn’t want this to happen to anyone else. the stories he came back with. Through this programme, Katherine now helps other children learn about good sanitation to prevent the further Pictures by David Conachy and Crispin Rodwell spread of disease. The Child-to-Child drama group Katherine belongs to Oxfam’s World is supported by the Oxfam Unwrapped gifts catalogue. It involves children teaching other children about good Northern Uganda: hygiene through dance, drama and singing. Life in the camps Peter watched the group perform a short play. One of the children played an old man who said things like ‘You don’t need to wash your hands after going to the toilet; in fact you don’t even need a toilet, just go behind a bush like Katherine and the Child-to-Child drama group we’ve always done’. One of the children listened to the old man and Peter says, “The point was very well made that Over the past 20 years, Uganda has suffered the effects of he got sick and the nurses and doctors had to look after conflict between the government and the Lord’s Resistance him.” Army (LRA), which has included the looting of villages, brutal massacres and the abduction of children to serve Over two hundred children were watching the play with as child soldiers. Peter and learning about the transmission of cholera. Programs like the Child-to-Child drama group have had an During his recent visit to Northern Uganda, Peter met enormous impact in IDP camps. There are often outbreaks Katherine Aol, a fourteen-year-old girl who lives in a camp of cholera in Northern Uganda but recently people living in for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) and whose little camps have been incredibly less affected than people who brother had recently died of cholera. stayed in towns and villages. Peter went on a trip to see how the Oxfam Ireland Unwrapped Gifts can make a difference in the communities of people who had to flee their homes during the war and are now living in the camps for Internally Displaced Persons in Northern Uganda.